Means for reeling cables.



G. E. MIRFIEL'DKL F. H. NULLMEYER.

MEANS FOR REELING CABLES.

. APPLICATION FILED JULY 1, I915- 1,230,009. Patented June 12, 1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

G. E. MIRFIELD F. H. NULLMEYER.

I MEANS FOR REELING CABLES. APPLICKTION FILED JULY 1. 1915.

Patented June 12, 1917.

Kaye? 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

e E. MiyjZeZd/ Ii. ZlZuZZ .Inzzeni'or UNITED STATES :PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE E. MIRFIELD AND FRANK H. NULLMEYER, 0F YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO, ASSIGNORS, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO THE YOUNGSTOWN SHEET AND TUBE COMPANY, OF YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

MEANS FOR REELING CABLES.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, Guouen E. MIRFIELD and FRANK II. NULLMEYER, citizens of the United States, residing at Youngstown, 1n the county of Mahoning and State of Ohlo,

have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Means for Reeling Cables, of which the following is a specificatlon.

The present invention relates to means or appliances for windmg cable upon a shipping reel and prepar ng the cable to render it in proper condition for use prior to the winding operation. I

The objects of the invention are to provide means for passing the cable olf from a reel on which it has been wound during the process of applying a metal armor thereto and onto a second reel which is used for shipping cable; means for passing the cable from one reel to the other to allow the cable to turn, thereby eliminating any twists therein and releasing any tension created by said twists, and thereby placing the cable in condition for use; and means for polishing the cable and measuring the amount of cable passing onto the shipping reel.

The invention further consists in the features of construction and combinations of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a plan view of the machines or devices constituting the present inven-.

tion;

Fig. 2 is a front view of the machines shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail partly in section of the means for permitting an untwisting of the cable; and

Fig. 4 is a side view of said means.

In the art to which the present invention relates, it has been found that the armor placed on the cable by the use of certain types of armor formin machines will, in many instances, produce a twist or turn in the body of the cable, thereby generating a spring tension, and when the cable is liberated from the reel on which it is wound during the armor applying operation, the spring tension thus created will cause the cable to unwind from such reel in a tangled or snarled condition, rendering it necessary to straighten it out. The presence of such Specification of Letters'latent.

Patented June 12, 1917.

Application filed. July 1, 1915. Serial NO. 37,537.

spring tension creates considerable danger, owing to the flying about of the cable due to release of such tension; and in short where this condition is met, it has been found that the cable is rendered practically useless from a commercial standpoint.

The present invention deals primarily with a means or appliances which serves to eliminate the turn or twist in said cable, so that, when it is placed upon the shipping reel, it will be in untwisted condition and the snarling and twisting heretofore described and due to the tension created by the twisting will be eliminated when the cable is removed from the reel for use.

Referring now to the drawing, there are four appliances shown. The first indicated by the general numeral 5 is an apparatus which allows the cable to untwist itself and eliminate all spring tension therein created by a twisting or turning of the cable during the armoring thereof. The mechanism indicated by the numeral 6 is for the purpose of polishing the cable. The mechanism indicated by the numeral 7 is for the purpose of measuring the cable, and the machine indicated by the general numeral 8 is for the purpose of winding the cable upon a shipping reel. These machines maybe of any suitable character, and no claim is made in this application to the particular construction thereof, except that, by arranging them in the manner hereinafter pointed out, a winding of the cable upon the shipping reel is effected with a minimum number of handlings of the cable, thereby increasing the speed and efficiency of the operation.

The machine 5, which is the machine for allowing the twist to remove itself from the cable, forms the major portion of the present invention, and this comprises a standard or frame 9, which consists of a lower plate 10 provided with a neck 11, and rods or bars 12 secured to the plates 10 at their lower ends and secured at their upper ends to sleeves or hubs 13, into which are entered trunnions 1 1- of a reel 15, which reel is the one upon which the armored cable is wound during the armoring operation. A base member 15 is provided with an upwardly extending neck 16, and the adjoining faces of the necks 11 and 16 are formed with a groove to receive ball bearing or other anti-friction members 17. This perfromwhich extends an arm 22 which carmils of a free revolution of the frame 9 with respect to the base 15". A supporting standard 18 is provided, consisting of vertical posts 19 secured to the floor. Thes posts have secured to their upper ends horizontally extending arms 20 which, as shown, are attached to a four-way coupling 21,

ries a guide roller 23.

The cable passes off from this guide roller, between brushes 24 of the polishing machine, thusfinishing the outer metal surface of the armor. It then passes through measuring rollers 25 of the measuring machine 7, and onto a shipping reel 26 mounted on the reeling machine 8. This shipping reel 26 is preferably power-driven through any suitable source. As the cable passes ofl? from the reel 15, in case any twist in the cable is present, such twist is given an opportunity of passing outthat is, the spring power generated or incorporated into the cable by reason of the twist, manifests itself when the cable passes off from the reel 15, with the result that the cable is turned about its longitudinal axis in whichever direction the tensional force of the spring is exerted. This turns the frame 9 about the bearings 17, so that, as the cable passes off from this reel, the frame is turned or swung in whichever direction is desired to allow of the passage of the spring tension out from the cable and the elimination of the twists; and when the cable is finally placed upon the shipping reel, it is in untwisted condition and, therefore, will not twist or snarl when unreeled therefrom for the purpose of use.

We claim:

1. In a device of the class described, the combination of a reel, means for rotatably supporting the reel, means permitting said reel supporting means to turn freely in either direction about an axis at right angles to the axis of rotation of the reel, whereby the cable is free to untwist during the movement off from said reel, a shipping reel, means for winding the cable from said first mentioned reel onto the shipping reel, and a guide roller interposed between the two reels 1n position to occasion a bending or flexing of the cable around the surfaceof the guide roller during its passage from one reel to theother.

2. A device for removing twist from a cable, comprising a mounting for rotatably supporting a reel, means permitting said mounting to turn freely in either direction about an axis at right angles to the axis of revolution of said reel, and a guide roller for the cable passing off from said reel, substantially as described.

3. A device for removing twist from a cable, comprising a frame adapted to rotatably support a reel, a base member, a connection between said base member and frame, allowing said frame to turn in either direction about an axis at right angles to the axis of rotation of said reel, a second frame, and a guide roller for said cable passing from said reel and carried by said second frame, substantially as described.

4:. In a device of the class described, the combination of a reel, means for rotatably supporting the reel, means permitting said reel and supporting means to turn freely in either direction about an axis at right angles to the axis of rotation of the reel, whereby the cable is free to untwist during the movement of said reel, a shipping reel, means for winding the cable from said first mentioned reel onto the shipping reel, and a guide member interposed between the two reels and adapted to afford a point of frictional contact with the traveling cable to restrict the untwisting action to the strand of cable intermediate said guide member and the first mentioned reel, substantially as described. 7

GEORGEE. MIRFIELD, FRANK H. NULLMEYER. Witnesses:

GEO. L. MIEDING, M. E. LANSDOWNE. 

